Mr Newport said 'The documentary shows the complexity of the children we have'

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An education boss at a Wokingham special school which teaches some of the most difficult children in the country hopes a TV documentary will show people how complex their task is.

Barnardo’s High Close School featured in two-part Channel 4 series, Lost Children, which examined how children with special educational needs cope at school.

Jonathan Newport, head of education, said: “There seems to be a real negative attitude towards youth in our country at the moment and they [Channel 4] wanted to look at organisations that are trying to help them.

“We work with some of the most difficult children in the country and we have to see through the behaviour and the labels they have to work with the real child.”

All pupils at the school in High Close have a statement of special educational needs and 95 per cent of them have two or more needs, while 22 per cent have five or more.

The programme, which took around two years to make, focused on pupils Courtney, 12, and Josh, 15.

Mr Newport said: “The documentary shows the complexity of the children we have, but I’m not sure it really showed the success we have with the children it focused on.

“We work very differently and take children from around the UK – the children local authorities can’t work out what to do with.

“We have created a niche market and we work in a box-less way and say ‘we are aware of all the labels but let’s look at the child and what we need to do for them’.

“Hopefully, it came across that we look at the emotions that are driving their behaviour. There are so many young people who, for different reasons, are struggling.

“There are no bad children, there are just children who are trying to make sense of the world they find themselves in.”

The first episode focused on Courtney who has since moved on from the school. Mr Newport said: “I don’t feel it [our experience with Courtney] was a failure. We had worked out she had severe learning difficulties and our environment wasn’t going to work for her.

“Josh’s episode is really quite powerful, I think more so because of the relationship with his adoptive mother. It highlights the relationship the school has with parents.”

* The second part of the documentary was shown on Channel 4 last Tuesday and both episodes are available on 4oD.